New Prisons Needed For . . . Unreported Crimes?

[Rerun]

Our justice and correctional systems are broken and need to be fixed.

[CaptainCrunch]

We have the whole arctic circle as one big cheap prison. You don't need fences or roads or even guards. You air drop food once a week, and if someone wants to escape, enjoy your walk.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Just another step in policy that reflects conservative interests and doesn't reflect those of the population at large.

People instantly recoil at the suggestion of building "new prisons" by holding up some sort of American boogie-man. If there aren't enough cells to safely hold and rehabilitate prisoners, we should build more.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

We have the whole arctic circle as one big cheap prison. You don't need fences or roads or even guards. You air drop food once a week, and if someone wants to escape, enjoy your walk.

That worked moderately well in Tsarist Russia...

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

That worked moderately well in Tsarist Russia...

And they did do an accurate tree census.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

We have the whole arctic circle as one big cheap prison. You don't need fences or roads or even guards. You air drop food once a week, and if someone wants to escape, enjoy your walk.

Great idea. Unemployment rates are high in the NWT. We actually have people who live up there who enjoy living there. Sounds like the perfect marriage.... until you get all the bleeding heart liberals piping up that imprisonment in the arctic would be undue hardship to our criminal element.

[EddyBeers]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Great idea. Unemployment rates are high in the NWT. We actually have people who live up there who enjoy living there. Sounds like the perfect marriage.... until you get all the bleeding heart liberals piping up that imprisonment in the arctic would be undue hardship to our criminal element.

I would start with the unreported criminal elements first and go from there.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...ers-per-capita

Getting tough on crime should be a national priority.

Except that getting tough on crime is probably less often than not the best solution to reduce crime in our society. There is a reason why the Canadian (and US) Criminal justice systems have migrated away from strictly punitive systems and that is because they were not working to reduce crime and in many cases actually caused an increase. They didn't just wake up one day and decide to be slack on criminals for no reason. They do studies on the long term ramifications these things.

For example:

You get some guy who makes a poor choice and punches someone for hitting on his girlfriend. In the CJS system he probably gets a year probation or some other community sentence. He goes on living his life as normal, paying the costs associated with his choice, (financial cost or loss of freedoms due to probation etc).

You give that same guy time in jail, even if it is minor time like 30 days, it is astronomically more expensive for the state to hold him. Not to mention he has to be in the prison system where the culture (drug, violence, etc) is such that he will have a higher likelihood of re-offending while in prison and after he is released.

Which is better for society?

I have no problems with giving harsher sentences for some crimes, but the cold reality of it is that sticking people in jail for longer times has not worked in the past as a deterrent for them to re-offend and the threat of that harsher sentence only has a minor effect on whether others will offend or not.

You are much better off spending that money on community programs to 'get kids off the street' or substance abuse programs to address the real causes of crime, the culture the offender lives (or lived in), and its affect on their lifestyle and choices.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

I like the idea of more prisons as many criminals are getting released early due to over crowding and others are getting lesser sentences due to the same cause, but his explanation is confusing to say the least.

This is the absolute truth of the matter. My neighbour is a fairly high ranking operations person for Correctional Services Canada and I've learned a lot from him about the prison situation in Canada, and the above description of the situation is bang on.

[CaptainCrunch]

I've always thought that we should seperate our prison system.

The first should be for first time offenders and light non-violent offenders. WIth the idea of providing education, rehabilitation and the ability to pay a debt to society, so heavy in community services.

Some ideas for community service. 30 days of scrubing camp toilets in banff. Cleaning up along side major highways wearing a color coded shirt that fits your crime. standing on a street corner with a written sign that you wrote explaining your crime and apology. Working for 60 days with the homeless. Public speaking to schools, if your a drug dealer you talk about the dangers of drugs, if you drink and drive, you talk about that etc. You get all the help you need, sentences no longer then 2 years less a day with time off for not only good behavior, but showing remorse, making victim restitution, and serving your community service and making a difference.

If your a multiple time offender, or violent, or you do something that harms another person (ie drug dealing in damaging drugs), its off to a unrepentant criminal prison. There you get gruel three times a day, you have an indefinate sentence, oh and you work every day to support your prison and pay for your time there. Whether its farming, repairing roads and schools and homes, or if there's nothing to do transporting a 3 ton pile of gravel one pebble at a time back and forth across the prison yard. There is no T.V., there are no video games, when your not working your writing letters of apology and working with councellers on your issues, because the only way you get out is when you truly understand your crime, its effect and your sorry.

If you commit a violent act in prison, you get air dropped to the arctic compound to serve out your days.

Oh

If your a pedophile or a rapist, there's a prison for you. On your first day you have from sun up to sundown to dig your cell. At the end of the day, we drop you in and cage the top. You get three meals a day in a bucket, and you only get one bucket, so if you have to poop you use your bucket, if it rains and you need to bail, there's your bucket.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by EddyBeers

I would start with the unreported criminal elements first and go from there.

The problem is that we aren't making the incentive high enough to report these unreported criminals. For the right price you can get just about anybody reported by anybody.